JOHN150 - Ocular Molting

John 3:9-13

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Music by Jeff Foote

Transcript

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Hello, it's Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour podcast, and I have a recommendation for you. This is bold. I hesitate to do this, or when I do make recommendations, you know, they're sneaky. They're tongue in cheek, so I won't get blamed if it's terrible. This one isn't terrible. It's great. There is a band that I would like to recommend to you. You should just go all the way down the rabbit hole with this one. The band is called The Strike, and I'm pretty cool because I've liked them before, you know, since before anybody knew about them. I've been following them since the very beginning of their career. I got to go to one of their shows with Jeff Foote and my dad and our kids in Fort Collins, Colorado. That was pretty awesome, by the way. We went to this show in the this downtown theater called the Aggie Theater there in Fort Collins. And that theater, I grew up right next door to it. My parents owned a store in downtown Fort Collins in the little old town on College Avenue. And I'd never been in the Aggie Theater in my whole life as a kid growing up right there. And so finally I got to go to a show, and it was with this band called The Strike. The Strike is a band that seems to understand everything about 80s and 90s music. And they they make just, you know, like wholesome 80s, 90s style pop, pop rock, radio rock kind of stuff that evokes a whole bunch of things that you've kind of heard before. It's I mean, it's comfort food, it's good, it's excellent. I really highly recommend The Strike. But I was listening to one of their songs the other day, I can't remember which one, and they they had a reference in there that is a Bible reference that is one of those Bible references that is leaked beyond the Bible into the larger culture, the larger vernacular. And the line in the song is something like, uh, now all the scales are falling off of my eyes. I might not be quoting that perfectly, but that's the gist. Okay, well, probably a lot of you right now are like, oh, well, I know exactly what that's a reference to. That is uh a reference to Acts chapter nine and the story of Paul's conversion. Back when he was, you know, he still went popularly by Saul. He was a persecutor of Christians, and Saul's on this road trip to go and find Christians who don't live in Jerusalem to persecute them as well. So he's on his way to Damascus. And on the way, Jesus appears to him and knocks him to the ground and strikes Paul blind and says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And Saul's like, Who are you, Lord? And he's like, I'm Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. And so Saul follows the instructions. He goes to this house on Strait Street, which is a street you can still go and look at, which is awesome. And there's a guy there named Ananias, who's a follower of Jesus. And then everybody's rightly really afraid of Saul, and there's a lot of you know trepidation about what might happen here. But somewhere in that time that Saul spends with Ananias, he he gets it. And it says in verse 17, then Ananias went into the house and entered it, and placing his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. And that story gets told many times throughout the rest of the New Testament. It's one of the most repeated stories in the entire New Testament. That scales falling from the eyes thing. It's interesting. I mean, obviously, I picture that. I think there's literally an ocular molting that is occurring right there. And I'm sure that was uncomfortable for Ananias and anybody else who might have been in the house. Like you pray over somebody, and then just a bunch of peak goop falls out of their eyes. I don't know, is it like little dimes, like a cataract or something? What did that look like? Didn't have a smell. I'm sure that was a very uncomfortable, odd moment, but it I mean it almost is evocative of like a metamorphosis, like the caterpillar turning into a butterfly, right? It kind of feels like shedding that skin, but also it's the molting is it's on the eye. So it's a picture of this theme that runs through the whole Bible of having the ability to see things clearly, being able to get what you're looking at. The image there is of a bad lens. It can take in light, it can take in something, but it's distorted, it's messed up, it's not bringing in light the right way. There's an obstruction. And then when that comes off, the light comes in, the image comes in properly. And the idea is now the person who's had the scales either literally or figuratively fall from their eyes can see stuff. Jesus says in Matthew 6, 22, the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? Well, that was Saul's situation. He thought he could see, but he couldn't see. Even when he didn't have the scales on his eyes, he thought he could see, but he couldn't see. Saul had a first century Pharisaic view of the world. He had a ton of data, he was well educated, but he couldn't collect that data and add it up into a cohesive understanding of the nature of God and the nature of God's redemptive plan. So when God's redemptive plan was unfolding right in front of his occluded eyes, he's like, I gotta kill it. And that's what Saul did. He persecuted Christians and he tried to kill them. Surely in your life and in mine, surely in our observations of others, we have seen this bad lenses thing happen. And we've also seen in our own lives and the lives of others those scales fall from the eyes. Well, another person who's very much like Paul with scales on his eyes, in this case metaphorically, is Nicodemus in John 3. Jesus has been laying things out to him. And Nicodemus, he he has the same data. He just he's running the calculations so differently. And so it's very telling that Jesus is referencing stuff from the very Bible that Nicodemus studies all the time. And Nicodemus is just flat-footed. I don't get it, I don't think about it. It's like it doesn't occur to Nicodemus to think in these patterns of the grand redemptive plan. He's looking at the same passages, but he's seeing completely different patterns. Why? Because he has scales on his eyes and Jesus doesn't. Why does Jesus not have scales on his eyes? Well, because Jesus has actually seen the other side. And Nicodemus has seen glimpses of it, but hasn't been able to cobble it together. Jesus is explicitly and implicitly pushing back on Nicodemus' understanding of the world when he says stuff like, flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. Nicodemus, obviously, like Saul, I mean, they're from the same school of thought, the same group of friends, is going to be thinking in the category of right standing with God is ethnic. You're born into it because it's a promise to Abraham handed down to the descendants of Abraham, you know, over the thousands of years that have passed between Abraham and the time of the New Testament. And Jesus is pushing back and saying, well, it's it's more than flesh. Spirit gives birth to spirit. Nicodemus can't see it because he's got scales on his eyes, in this case, metaphorically. And now Jesus is gonna take him by the hand and show him stuff that is true, and it's implicit, not explicit, but when Jesus is done doing this, scales fall from Nicodemus's eyes. We can tell by his behavior as the book of John goes along that he is transformed by this, and all of a sudden he can see. John 3 11. This is Jesus talking. I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. What does he mean by we? I think Jesus is talking about himself and his disciples. Remember, right at the end of John chapter one, he's got this new batch of disciples, his first disciples, and he tells them, I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. And then John the evangelist, you remember we talked about this a few days ago, he keeps giving us as readers cues that with each sign, each thing that Jesus does, the disciples find new levels of belief and faith. Why? Because they don't got scales on their eyes, and they're seeing heaven open up. They're seeing this, you know, I think it's an image that Jesus was using there in John chapter one, but what they're they have eyes to see, this interaction between heaven and earth that Saul and Nicodemus don't have eyes to see. And it's because of their proximity to Jesus, it's not because they're particularly special or earned it, but Jesus is showing them this stuff. They followed him, they responded to his call to follow him, and now they're in the proximity of this openness, this interaction between what is above and what is below. I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. So Jesus is saying he and the disciples have vision, they have eyes to see, they don't have scales. Nicodemus, I imagine that the big stumbling block for him is that spirit, spirit, flesh, flesh thing from Jesus' second comment in this dialogue. I think he can't get past the ethnic component that tended to be a hang-up for people in the New Testament who rejected Jesus in favor of their flawed understanding of Judaism. Uh and surely that would be Nicodemus's hang-up as well. But Jesus is saying, in so many words here, Nicodemus, you can't see clearly. You're supposed to be Israel's teacher. I just gave you something, a metaphor you should have got. Then I gave you a bunch of scripture illusions you should have got. You didn't get either of them. And now I'm telling you, see, you dude, you can't see. You don't have eyes to see it. It's demonstrated by the fact that you didn't get either of the last two things I said. I have eyes to see, and those who follow me have eyes to see. We're not groping around in the dark about something we don't know but have a few clues about. We've seen it. Jesus goes on. I've spoken to you of earthly things, and you don't believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one's ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the son of man. I'm gonna need more time to unpack that one because that takes us back into a bunch of John 1 stuff. And so we'll get into all of that tomorrow. But you see what Jesus is developing here. The first two questions in the dialogue have humbled Nicodemus, who was already assuming a humble posture that Saul, who also had scales on his eyes, was not assuming Nicodemus is in a better place spiritually, intellectually, but still has scales on his eyes. Jesus doubles down on that in his first two questions, doubles down on Nicodemus's not knowing his blindness. And now Jesus is spelling it out. I don't have scales on my eyes, Nicodemus. I think he's also saying implicitly, those who follow me don't have scales on their eyes, Nicodemus. And it's a tough pill. I'm sure it didn't feel good for Nicodemus to hear, but Jesus is even saying, like, I dumbed it down for you, bro. I gave you likewises. I gave you really simple earthly images, and you're so blind, your vision is so occluded, your scales on your eyes are so thick that you couldn't even piece it together with that, with all your years of training and these simple illustrations I've given you. I think what Jesus is setting up here is a completely valid appeal to authority. Nicodemus, your stated job is to teach about heavenly things, but you do not see or understand heavenly things. And here you are groping around in the dark trying to understand it. But Nicodemus, I, Jesus, have the authority to actually teach about heavenly things because I've been there. I've seen it with my own eyes, and now I'm stepping into this world to make it make sense to people like you and to give sight to the blind. So much more to cover on all of this business, and we will continue to do so tomorrow. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.